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Lagos amputee hawker set to open supermarket as she turns 27
By Modupe Shodeinde
Lagos amputee water hawker, Mary Daniel has revealed she’s set to establish a supermarket with donations she received from within and outside Nigeria.
Mary disclosed this during her 27th birthday celebration on Friday at a lounge in Ikeja, Lagos.
“I feel happy today,” Mary enthused about the event. “I didn’t celebrate my birthday last year. I am grateful to God for what He has done in my life,” she said, her face lit up with smiles. “I never thought I would mark my birthday in a big way like this.”
She added, “People who know me before now have been calling me and making kind remarks about me. They said I have changed for good and they can hardly recognise me again.”
Speaking on her plan to establish a supermarket, the single mum said “I want to set up a supermarket where I will be selling cartons of noodles, bottled water, drinks, food stuffs and other items.
“I plan to employ two of my cousins. One is based in Awka (Anambra) while the other is based in Asaba (Delta). They will relocate to Lagos and join me in running the supermarket. As soon as I get my own apartment, I will bring my daughter to Lagos. I hope my story will inspire people in my condition to always try to struggle to earn a living.”
She added that a non-governmental organisation has decided to pick up the bill of prosthesis to be procured for her.
“The people that will do the artificial leg came on Monday to take the measurement of my leg. They said it would be ready in one month’s time,” she said.
The single mum, who marked her 27th birthday on Friday with fanfare, used to sell bottled water on highways in the Oshodi area of Lagos.
A story by the Punch had narrated how Daniel went through difficult times after losing her parents and her right leg to an accident in December 2006 while they were travelling to their hometown in Ayingba, Kogi State from Katsina State for Yuletide.
Dropping out at Junior Secondary School 3, she took to the streets in Onitsha, Anambra State, selling sachet water to cater to herself and her aged grandmother
In 2018 she was impregnated by her fiancé who she said denied responsibility for the pregnancy, forcing her to relocate to Delta State out of shame.
She continued to hawk in Delta State even after giving birth. She relocated to Lagos in March, hawking bottled water in chaotic traffic and passing the night on the balcony of a building on Suwebatu Street, Oshodi.
Her story had generated overwhelming public sympathy as people sought help for the orphan while praising her rare grit.
